There is an increasing tendency to harvest hay in large bales, and various devices have been produced to aid in feeding out a line of forage for stock from these bales. Ordinarily the apparatus is supported on or towed by a tractor and is arranged to support the bale with some mechanism to feed out the hay from the bale as a line of loose hay suitable for consumption by stock.
Chainless bale feeders using rotating drums are known. The rotating drums catch feed and unravel a bale, gradually releasing feed (for example hay) onto a field. Ordinarily such bale feeders have two drums (a lower drum and an upper drum). The drums have teeth which inter-engage during rotation to grip feed. It is also known to provide lower drums with rows of paddles along the length of the drum in order to help to rotate/unwind the bale. Such paddles are particularly useful when feeding out sloppy bales. Ordinarily, paddles are uniform and symmetrical, and they are arranged in straight lines. A problem with this arrangement of paddles is that bales may become twisted during the feeding process, which impedes feeding of material.
It would be desirable for the drums to prevent unwanted twisting of bales and act to tease out and separate the feed such that it is fairly evenly distributed along the length of the drums. This makes it easier for stock to eat, and results in less wasted feed.
There a need to provide bale feeder drums which help centralise bales during the feeding process and prevent the bales from twisting during unravelling. There is also a need to provide bale feeder drums with improved gripping, stretching and breaking-up of bale material.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved bale feeder drum and/or bale feeder or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.